Starbucks says you’re not going to get your highly customized drink order anymore—you’ll get what you’re given
After three straight quarters of declining same-store sales, Starbucks’ new CEO Brian Niccol is making some changes, including cutting down on highly customized drink orders.
Both customers and baristas have complained for years about highly customized drinks and the delay they can cause in getting orders out efficiently. In an effort to meet Niccol’s goal of getting every order in the customers’ hands in four minutes or less, the company wants to simplify customizations.
To make things easier for customers and employees, the company will add “common sense guardrails” to customizations on its mobile app, Niccol said during Starbucks’ fiscal fourth-quarter earnings call Wednesday. He added that the company’s current mobile custom ordering system causes headaches for both customers and baristas.
“One, it’s complicated for the customer to get through it. And then, two, we kind of incentivize people to customize drinks that probably aren’t the best way to execute the drink. Not to mention, it creates additional complexity for our partners to execute the drink. So we have some cleanup to do is the way I would describe it,” Niccol said.
These changes will improve consistency as well as help eliminate price tag surprises for highly customized drink orders that could be more expensive than a regular drink, the CEO said.
Starbucks’ menu changes aren’t just affecting drinks, the coffee chain’s food options are also due for a revamp. Niccol said in order to focus on quality over variety, Starbucks will cut some of its food items.
“I do think we’re going to be much better at food if we do fewer things on the food front in a better quality fashion,” he said.
A spokesperson for Starbucks told Fortune in a statement that the coffee chain was cutting down its menu to align with its core identity as a coffee company.
“We continue to offer customers great choice. By focusing on fewer, better products we expect this to improve throughput, quality and consistency,” the spokesperson said.
Apart from the menu changes, Starbucks will also bring back condiment bars filled with milk and sugar to its stores beginning next year. The condiment bars were largely eliminated from Starbucks locations following the COVID-19 pandemic.
To get in-store orders out as fast as possible, Niccol wants a simple drip coffee to be ready almost as soon as you order it and handed to you by the cashier. Customers can then take their coffee to the condiment bar to add milk and sugar to their taste.
“Our customers are asking for it, and our baristas are saying it would help them deliver the speed of service that they want to provide,” Niccol said of the condiment bars.
Niccol left Chipotle and took the helm at Starbucks in September, snagging a $113 million pay check and remote-working privileges in exchange for turning things around at the struggling coffee chain. Yet, he has his work cut out for him.
Despite Niccol’s ambitious future plans, the company’s shares fell less than 1% Thursday after it missed analyst expectations with its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings. The company reported a 7% decline in global comparable same-store sales and a 6% sales decline in North America and the U.S. It’s the third straight quarter of declining sales for the company.
The changes to food and drinks are part of Niccol’s plan to reclaim Starbucks’ reputation as a “third place” and foster a “coffee house vibe” so people want to stay awhile. The CEO said the company wants to get back to focusing on the in-store customer experience. To do this, Niccol said Starbucks will switch to ceramic mugs for some in-store drinks and give baristas back their sharpies so they can add custom flair to drink orders.
“I think there’s a lot of just simple things that go a long way of saying, you know what, this is a community place, this is a special place where people are here to connect,” he said.
